Live Bernie event in Flint, MI

[BernieforPres2016]

5. Bernie should do a long video on Flint, maybe a half hour or so

I don't know if all the information in the meeting was factually accurate, but a couple of things I heard really stuck with me.

1. According to one speaker, Flint used have one of the highest per capital incomes in the U.S. in the heyday of the auto industry at $84K. Now Flint has the second lowest per capita income of any U.S. city at $21,000.
2. Either the same speaker or another one said that 33% of the structures in Flint need to be demolished.

And of course, with poverty, crime is a huge issue. As are public finances and city services, with the population declining and real estate tax revenues sinking with property values. So the city ends up bankrupt and under an appointed outside "city manager". Then there is the water crisis when somebody decides to try to save some money by switching the city water supply.

What has happened in Flint ties in with the vast majority of Bernie's campaign issues and is an illustration of the failures of trickle down economics, trade agreements, a substandard minimum wage, a crumbling infrastructure, youth unemployment and crime, incarceration, and on and on.

Bernie does a good job of tying his issues together in his speeches. A town like Flint could be a good way to show how they have impacted one town and its residents.